DC in the Early 80s

 Over on my other blog, I've been chronicling the week-by-week offerings of DC Comics from January 1980 cover dates to the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths in December, 1985 (cover date March 1988). I thought it would be interesting to compare the titles being published at the beginning of that period and those published at the end as an indicator of the change DC experienced over this period. 

So here are the DC publications in January of 1980 (cover dare April 1980):

In this list, superhero titles share the stands with war, horror, Western, Sword & Sorcery, and science fiction titles. These make up over 40% of the total offerings. Batman and Superman titles make up over 50% of the 15 superhero comics.

In lists to follow, ongoing titles are in black, new ongoings are in green, limited series in blue, and series that were cancelled from one list to the next are in red.

Here are the publications in July of 1983 (cover date October 1983), halfway between my chosen start and end points:

Ten of the 1980 titles are no more, and 7 of those cancelled titles were non-superhero books. Only House of Mystery remains of the old horror line. Still, it isn't a complete shift to superheroes. Of the new titles we have Sword & Sorcery (Arak) and high fantasy (Amethyst and Arion), war (Blackhawk), and horror (Saga of the Swamp Thing). I suppose Omega Men could be considered a science fiction or at least space opera book of a sort, too. What is definitely disappearing is anthology books, though. G.I. Combat and House of Mystery are the only two left.

Limited series, a relatively new phenomenon, account for 4 of the current series (I miscolored Ronin).

Now, let's take a look at the comics being published in December of 1985 (cover date March 1986):

Sixteen of the series in 1980 are now gone, and those include Wonder Woman and World's Finest with runs back to the Golden Age, and Flash, that ushered in the Silver Age. Teen Titans, the Outsiders, and the Legion of Super-Heroes join Batman and Superman in the ranks of heroes with multiple books, though theirs exist to capitalize on the different tastes of the direct market. The Tales of books are also both reprint series.

Of the new titles in the '83 list, only the superhero or superhero adjacent titles (Swamp Thing and Omega Men) are still around. Of 31 ongoing titles, only 7 are non-superhero books (not counting the genre-straddling Omega Men).

Limited series are even more common than in '83 as are licensed books. There are two ongoing series (Star Trek and V) of licensed properties.

Return of the Avatar

 My daughter has been rewatching Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, so it was serendipitous when I saw the news the other day that the sequel film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was going to be released to Paramount+ later this month!

I've known about the upcoming film for some time that fills in some of the period between the series A:TLA and The Legend of Korra, but I was expecting it in October, because that was its original release date. Speculation on the internet suggests this moved up release date had to do with the film getting leaked to the internet back in April. It's unfortunate that this may have led to the cancelling of the release to theaters, but an earlier date is welcome.

Here's the final trailer for the film:

Another Reminder You Should be Reading Flash Gordon

I've praised Dan Schkade's on-going run on the Flash Gordon comic strip on King Feature's Comics Kingdom (and apparently still in some newspapers), but I felt like I should do so again. It's really good, so I don't want you to forget it.

Historically, those that followed Raymond on the strip have stuck to the formula of fantasy adventure in exotic locales. Some of the early authors also mimicked the Raymond strips frequent love-triangle melodrama, but that seems to have fallen away in later years. What came in instead though is a tendency to use only the sandbox of the Raymond years as canon rather than the interplanetary adventures of creators than followed.

Schkade's follows the sticking to Mongo approach and seems to stick mostly with a "Raymond years only" canon, though there are occasional nods to later writers and to Flash in other media beyond the strip. What Schkade adds that no one else has (outside of some of the comic book versions) is a further depth to the world. The various rulers of Mongo have their own motivations and political aspirations that made them allies against Ming, but rivals in the post-Ming world. Ming has a backstory and point of view that makes him understandable if no more commendable. As in the strip above, we get the point of view of someone who follows him.

Schkade does this without changing the essential nature of the strip from fast-paced adventure. It's a worthy addition to Flash Gordon's storied history, and I hope it gets collected in a physical format one day.

Things I've Watched Recently on Crunchyroll

 I've been on a fantasy anime kick, so I've been checking out some shows (beyond Frieren, which I have already been enjoying) in that genre.

Sentenced to Be a Hero (2026) is based on a series of light novels by Rocket Shōkai. It tells the story of Xylo Forbatz, a former knight, now member of Penal Unit 9004. He and the rest of his misfit unit were executed for various crimes then raised with (apparently, it isn't entirely clear) low level superhuman abilities. They are at the forefront of humanities war against the Demon Lords who spread fungal-like Demon Blight. Forbatz's life gets more complicated when a Goddess, Teoritta, binds with him, the Goddesses being a limited resource human's use to bind with warriors to create a formidable fighting team.

The series has an interesting concept and characters and a lot of action. There's only one season available now, but hopefully there will be a second.

Radiant (2018) is actually based on a comic by a French creator, but the anime adaptation is by a Japanese studio, and the English translation of the comic is published by Viz in North America. This one is more light-hearted than Sentenced, at least at its start, and reminds me a bit of Naruto. Monstrous, sort of kaiju-type creatures called Nemeses fall from the sky to menace the populace of this world. People can become infected by contact with a Nemesis. Those that survive gain the power to manipulate the energy-source "fantasia" and become sorcerers (as such superhero as magic-user). Noble sorcerers fight to save the world that hates and fears them. The main character, Seth, is a young Sorcerer in training.

I've only watched a couple of episodes of this one, but it's entertaining enough, if not engrossing necessarily. I find it interesting that it's basically a superhero story but in a very (for American audiences) nonstandard superhero setting, something it sort of shares with Sentenced.

Last, but certainly not least is Witch Hat Atelier (2026). This one is based on a Harvey Award winning manga, and from the anime so far, I can see why it was well-regarded. A young girl named Coco with a lifelong interest in magic accidentally casts a spell that turns her mother to crystal. Though it's against the rules, she is taken as an apprentice by a witch named Qifrey (Who has an ulterior motive. He wants information on the outlawed Brim Hats who are the source of the spell Coco cast.) and joins the other apprentices at Qifrey's atelier. 

I'm enjoying the unfolding mystery of witch society and nature of the schism between them and the Brim Hats. The animation on the series is really nice with designs reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. 

Masters of the Universe (2026)

My brother and I indulged in a bit of 80s nostalgia last weekend and took in the new Masters of the Universe movie. We both enjoyed. It's not without its as my brother put it: "It may not be the best Masters of the Universe move you could hope for, but it's probably the best one your likely to get."

The approach the move takes is kind of a fusion of the "social commentary plus affectionate poking fun at its silliness" approach of Barbie with the now default action-comedy of Guardians of the Galaxy. There also seems to be a strain of pure camp reminiscent of Flash Gordon (1980). It's not a bad approach, in theory, but the film can't decide exactly on its message (or at least can't seem to get the plot in place to support it), and its comedy, despite some funny moments, sometimes falls flat or is belabored. Yes, Fisto's name and schtick are funny to adults, but make the joke once and move on!

At times, the film seems to really need you to understand it realizes it's all silly by adding a joke or undercutting a serious bit with a gag. Playing it straight and trusting the audience to know that you were winking at them--or just allowing them to enjoy it whether you were or weren't--seems to be something the filmmakers weren't ready to do. And maybe they're right for 2026, I don't know.

Anyway, I started with the less good part. There are a lot of things I think the film does unambiguously right. The production design is good, more aesthetically pleasing than say Marvel's recent efforts. The action sequences are engaging. Pretty much all the elements of the MOTU mythos you might want to see in a first film are there. It also makes an effort to include a lot of characters, though inevitably there are still some that got left out. Sorry Stratos fans!

The cast is good overall, though some of them have more to do or more interesting to do than others. Leto really shines as Skeletor with a good mix of camp and menace without trying to specifically mimic the cackling Skeletor of the 80s cartoon. 

I would also note that despite at times making fun of the property, it never feels like those involved thought they were better than the material. The jokiness is the same sort of fond/nostalgic jokiness that comes from teens goofing on the cartoons of their youth or from internet memes using Skeletor. They are making fun with MOTU not making fun of it.

The weekend box office results are in, and it looks to have under-performed which is not wholly unexpected. It's not a property younger audiences are going to have a connection to, and honestly the language and adult humor don't make it ideal to use it to introduce kids to MOTU. Like the Dungeons & Dragons movie, though, I think if you're in the group it's aimed at, you're likely to enjoy it.

Have you XNOO?

Have you backed XNOO #1, It's a 276 page "aperiodical" fantasy comics anthology. It features work by several rpg and comic artists, among them Artyom Trakhanov, Goran Gligović, James West, Alexey Gorboot, Stefan Poag, and my frequent collaborator, Jason Sholtis. Here's a sample:

I'm so pleased that it also features the debut of my Land of Azurth comic "The Runaway Shadow" featuring art by comics veteran Mike Kazaleh. You can see a sample of that just above.

Filling out the issue are articles on related topics. My text piece is on comics adaptations of literary Sword & Sorcery characters.

You're going to want to check it out!

Head over to Kickstarter now.

Warlord's Return

 

World's Finest #51 by Mark Waid and Adrian Gutierrez came out this week, and as I mentioned previously, it features an appearance by Skartaris, Travis Morgan, and several of Warlord's supporting cast. The conceit of Waid's World's Finest series is that it is "earlier" adventurers of Batman and Superman so he can give it a bit of a retro spin will having set in the current DC Universe (whatever that actually means in terms of continuity these days). This means that we are treated to Batman's and Superman's first meeting with Travis Morgan and perhaps a bit of a setting how his backstory and Skartaris are interpreted these days.

In dialogue with Robin, Batman fills the reader in that Travis Morgan was an Air Force pilot that disappeared over the Arctic in his SR-71 "years ago" as they follow the course of a more recent SR-71 pilot to disappear named Kreitzer. We are later told Morgan's disappearance was "a year or so" before Batman and Superman went public, so the timeline is kept vague, but they are clearly retconning his disappearance being in 1969. 

Waid keeps (or rath re-introduces, since DC dropped this after Grell left) the aspect of time running differently in Skartaris than on Earth. Morgan is whitehaired as always and says he has lived "a lifetime" in Skartaris. Krietzer, who only disappeared recently from Earth's perspective has been there for "years" Skartarian time. In the original series, time was strange in Skartaris, but mostly it appeared that time ran quicker on Earth, so this inverts things.

Much of Warlord's supporting cast makes an appearance, including Machiste, Tara, Mariah, and Shakira make an appearance, prompting an amusing comment from Robin:

While the art looks nice overall (with Guerrero's coloring really stealing the show for me), I can't say I care for Guitterrez's rendition of Morgan or any of his crew. Morgan's winged helm looks like it has actually feathers stuck to it. None of the fur garments worn by Morgan, Shakira, or Tara look particularly like fur. I get the since Guiterrez is a superhero guy out of his area of competency drawing these Frazetta-descended costumes.